by the hats he wished to sell. He had several mirrors, adapted by

various subtleties of curvature and tint to different types of face and

complexion, and much depended on the proper use of these.

Denton flung himself at these curious and not very congenial duties with

a good will and energy that would have amazed him a year before; but all

to no purpose. The Senior Manageress, who had selected him for

appointment and conferred various small marks of favour upon him,

suddenly changed in her manner, declared for no assignable cause that he

was stupid, and dismissed him at the end of six weeks of salesmanship.

So Denton had to resume his ineffectual search for employment.

This second search did not last very long. Their money was at the ebb.

To eke it out a little longer they resolved to part with their darling

Dings, and took that small person to one of the public creches that

abounded in the city. That was the common use of the time. The

industrial emancipation of women, the correlated disorganisation of the

secluded "home," had rendered creches a necessity for all but very

rich and exceptionally-minded people. Therein children encountered

hygienic and educational advantages impossible without such

organisation. Creches were of all classes and types of luxury, down to

those of the Labour Company, where children were taken on credit, to be

redeemed in labour as they grew up.

But both Denton and Elizabeth being, as I have explained, strange

old-fashioned young people, full of nineteenth-century ideas, hated

198

Tales of Space and Time-1